Billy Joe Saunders has been promised a fight with Gennady Golovkin or Saul Alvarez if he successfully defends his WBO middleweight title against Artur Akavov on October 22.

The undefeated 27-year-old is scheduled to make the first defence of the title he won in December 2015 having been kept inactive - not for the first time - by a hand injury.

Saunders had been scheduled to fight on the undercard of his friend Tyson Fury's rematch with Wladimir Klitschko on October 29 at the Manchester Arena but he instead tops the bill at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena.

He hopes to defeat the Russian and fight again in December, before pursuing a unification fight with IBF, WBA, IBO and WBC champion Golovkin, or Mexico's popular 'Canelo' Alvarez, either of which would generate a career-high purse.

Asked if talks had already taken place regarding a potential fight with either fighter, Saunders' promoter Frank Warren responded: "Yes. Provided he wins he will fight one of those guys, 100 percent.

"If he loses then he won't. He's got nothing to bring to the table; he's got to bring the belt.

"He needs to just focus on this fight: looking ahead is not where he needs to be. He needs to get the ring-rust out of his system. After that we can get things moving."

Saunders' WBO title is the only one at 160lbs presently beyond the reach of Golovkin, who has repeatedly spoken of his desire to unify the middleweight titles.

He would by some distance be the most difficult opponent of Saunders' career, and is one the Briton has previously doubted he could beat.